spellgrinders | ( TDM

TDMs can be used for anyone interested in the game and/or testing out a new muse.

Test Drive samples are encouraged to be used for your application sample, though they are NOT a requirement.

Feel free to use one prompt, multiple prompts or make up your own!

These threads can be considered game canon upon game opening if you so choose.

Telepathy and magic can be used at any point in time on the TDM, from Prompt A to your wildcard prompt. A specific prompt exists, however, that makes sure all characters have an equal chance to use this mechanic within the TDM. You're encouraged to have characters use telepathy and their magic accidentally or even purposefully on any TDM prompt.

If you aren't set on your character's power yet or want to try out a few, you're still able to use the test drive. Maybe your character is a late bloomer and hasn't fully unlocked their intuitive drive yet. In the case of multiple powers, only prompts that contain the power you choose for your application will count as potential game canon threads.

While only one character can be apped or reserved during a cycle, feel free to post with more than one character if you like! This is for those who are uncertain of their first choice or who would like to try out different characters within the setting.

IMPORTANT: This world is low-frequency. No canon powers or abilities are allowed! Also check out the setting information for more info about what the hub island looks like and what can be found there.

ou blink and that's all it takes. At first, the picture doesn't come in clear, like you're waiting for a screen to fully load -- more aptly, it's like you're waiting for a camera to focus so you can find image clarity. Before you happened to rapidly close your eyes and open them, your life was normal...well, normal for you, anyway. Fighting an alien, making a quesadilla, dying. And then that blurry picture suddenly takes over.

There's a lot to take in here -- you feel weird, your surroundings are weird. Everything is just weird. For starters, there's that new piece of jewelery inserted in the space above your chest. That certainly wasn't there before you opened your eyes.

scanner pod

Here's the part where they finally locate something of use: the base camp. The murky, weathered location is a little distressed, and resource gathering is making coven members sparse. However, that doesn't mean helpful answers aren't only a step away.

GAME NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Their worlds are too different, his and Gaelio's, both looking in different directions, or maybe it's just by the grace of being, somehow time and again, in opposing sides of the tide. They are all swept up in that man's plans, whether they're aware of it or not, and just because they are trapped in this witch's coven to fulfill some sort of sacred duty to aid her or whatever, it wasn't going to change a thing. Just a temporary hiccup, a halting truce uneasily set up.

It means nothing to him whatsoever. All his life, the only thing that's ever mattered, the only voice he's ever truly listened to has been—

But he isn't here.

Mika is dismayed, honestly speaking, but he doesn't necessarily dwell on it. People of his sort don't sit and dwell and stew over past mistakes and losses, they pick up whatever they can carry and move on.

So Mika will move on, as decisively as he could, and if the steps he take here bring him closer back to where he should be, to where orga is, then that will be enough. ]

The things about heroes, and fate... I don't really understand any of it.

[ Mika picks up the last of the dates, popping it into his mouth and starting to chew on it. ]

If you haven't died, does that mean you are going to get in our way again?

[ Tugging one strap over his shoulder, Gaelio lets the other dangle, forcing his attention back to Mikazuki's face. Those dull, placid eyes. Simplicity might be a strength, one he has come to appreciate in others. It allowed no room for deception or uncertainty, though it might also limit comprehension of grander concepts.

Whether a lack of capacity or a lack of interest, did the cause matter against the result?

Without understanding, no meaning. Even with understanding, Gaelio doubts it would matter. Toward what did Mikazuki look, toward what does he strive? Are they so unable to even glimpse one another's worlds, the pigmentation, the light? Through Ein, he'd thought he understood.

But he doesn't know how to reach Mikazuki, and even if he cared to, he's can't afford the attempt. He cannot look away from the one to whom, for whom he reaches, even for a second. He cannot spare a hand, even a finger.

Even if, as that man would have it, Mikazuki would stand in that same path, beside or before him.

And if Gaelio stands in front of them, he has no doubt as to what Mikazuki would do. Yet, the question of where he stands is no longer a simple one, if it had ever been. Clutching in the rain, curled beneath the sheets, closer on the beach.

Logically, it could only be a fleeting truce, terminated upon their return.

I want to continue it. To find whatever was missing before. ]

...I don't know.

[ Admitted bleak, admitted quiet.

Retreating from what bleeds raw in it, his tone twists wry, like the empty smirk ghosting over his features. ]

If I answered yes, would you have killed me right now?

[ But he does not pretend uncertainty for preservation.

Gaelio shuts his eyes, not daring it. Aware of the gun in his belt, his hands lifeless at his sides. A moment to collect this and that piece, to secure what slivers keep him whole. ]

Have you had a tour?

[ He thought he understood. People are prone to doing that, a sense of understanding, a sense of will. To pass judgement on others through their own measure of life and the experiences that come with it. Too easy to write them off as ragtag bunch of kids acting too tough for their real worth. Too easy to write them off as mere children, a basic pawn in some bigger game. They've been used before, exploited and abused for their perceived uses.

In some way, perhaps that's true. They might not know what they've stepped into, just what they started motion in a world that's both too big and too small to hold them, the consequence of dropping a pebble into a well. Walking in blindfolded and gagged. But none of that matters to Mikazuki.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Maybe they're right. But there's always a sliver of chance, hanging on by the skin of their teeth and the quick of their nails, of something different.

There's always hope.

Beneath the coat, tucked between his chest and his arm, the sling, the weight of the gun snug and tangible. But Mika doesn't move. It's not because of any sort of apprehension or nervousness, even though Gaelio's hands are limp by his sides and the gun sits in plain sight tucked into his belt. Even though it would be easy.

His eyes are quiet, and he looks at Gaelio like he is a book he hasn't learned all the words for yet; curious yet resigned. ]

If he tells me to, I will.

[ There is no uncertainty in his words. It is sure, and even though Mika utters it like it's the most obvious thing in the world there's no immediate venom in it -- but nevertheless, it's almost palpable, the weight of conviction behind the short sentence, the complete trust he puts in one Orga Itsuka. He sounds like he is sure he will kill him. He sounds like someone who's always had to work to make things happen for him and his comrades. It's like clearing snow from a path, like brushing away dirt from the table. ]

A tour?

[ Mika shifts his weight slightly to the other foot, tilting his chin up, canting his gaze sideways. ]

Not yet.

( TDM | #6 )

pats Gali on the head

don't you might catch something

dw he's already inoculated against gay (in canon apparently)